Pac-10 report: My picks for player, freshman and coach of the year, plus all-league team

The all-league team and awards are coming out any minute. I wanted to get this posted first and will be updating ASAP with the results and more analysis of my picks:

(10:05 update: I’m told the awards have been announced. Here’s the league’s website. COY is Romar; POY is Harden; FOY is Thomas. It’ll be posted there at some point, you’d image.

(10:15 update: It’s there now.)

*** Coach of the Year

Lorenzo Romar and Mike Montgomery have both done terrific jobs and would be worthy winners. But my pick, as noted before and even though his team went 7-11 in league play, is Oregon State’s Craig Robinson.

I mean, you can’t pick Montgomery over Robinson — Robinson beat him twice with less talent. As for Robinson vs. Romar … that’s a close call.

Robinson took over the worst program in league history (first ever 0-18) and with the same roster — a roster expected to finish last and win one or two games — won seven.

Romar won UW’s first outright league title in a half century with a team that was probably picked a spot or two lower than it should have been.

As stated above, Romar would be a worthy winner and a slam dunk pick in any other season. But I go back to late December, just before league play began, and think:

At that time, did anyone think OSU would win more than a game? And yet it won seven.

Anyhow, here are my end-of-season coaching rankings, based on what they did with their personnel:

I can’t believe you’re sticking with the foolishness of Robinson as COY. OSU finished 13-16. A losing record should never be rewarded with COY distinction.

Wilner has a man crush on obamer, Robinson is the brother in law.

Vintage Cal

Surprising that Jorge Gutierrez does not even receive Freshman-Honorable Mention from the Pac-10. DEMAND A RECOUNT!

mk92

Kudos to Jeremy Green for making All-Freshman (over Jorge Gutierrez, I might add)!

milo

I like Robinson and while 7-11 is a huge improvement, it’s not .500 and you have to be at least .500 to win COY. This is based on a little intellectual rigor and the idea of no freebies…all stuff his bro-in-law can support. That said, Robinson will go on to bigger and better things.

Frankly before I read that I thought no way, Randle doesn’t deserve it however after reading it, I think he might — especially if using the Collison criteria of MVP on 2nd best team, plus stats and leadership.

Hansen: “Cal point guard Jerome Randle might be the league’s best at year’s end. He leads the league in assists and is third in scoring, fourth in free-throw percentage (very important when you’re near the league lead with 156 attempts) and shot a dazzling .467 from three-point distance.”

Hansen: “Player of the Year: Jerome Randle. At year’s end, he was the most feared player in the league.”

Hansen is right about this. At the end teams would focus on shutting down Jerome…and yet he came through. Did you see the UA game?

Even if Randle isn’t COY, not having him on the first team with those stats and considering his impact (Cal and the league) is a plain nutty or just shortsighted.

I mean hell, Randle outplayed Rochestie in every stat except free throw %…and his team finished higher. You can make the same comparo to Collison for POY.

Jerome Randle – POY. He won’t get it but he’s a much more compelling pick then Collison, Jordan Hill or Harden.

mk92

milo -

“he won’t get it” should be “he didn’t get it” — Harden did.

milo

MK92 – I started writing that BEFORE the results were posted. BTW – 6-12!

jeff

randle over rochestie for 1st team, cal goes as randle goes

Jdub

JW, what’s the story with the Pac-10 tourney always being in LA? I hate the tourney as it is (every team has already played each other 2 times, why have a tourney to allow someone else a chance to make the NCAAs?) but it’s really unfair for the other 8 teams to plat road games vs USC and UCLA. And, as a Cal fan, it’s especially bad this year since we already match up badly with USC, but we get punished for getting 3rd in the Pac by getting a road game vs SC. If we drop to an 8 seed in the tournet bc of this, it would be pretty unfair.

Why noy have the tournet rotate to SF/Oakland, Phoenix, Seattle, Potrland also? There are plently of hoops fans in all of these areas that would love to see the tourney.

MSW

Wilner,

How can you have Taylor Rochestie over Jerome Randle on your first team? Oh, I’m sorry. Did I miss the part where your “all conference” team is only limited to performances in the last three weeks? Because that’s the only way anyone who’s been watching might think that Rochestie had a better year, and maybe not even then.

It can’t be the “function together” thing, because Rochestie is as much a point guard as Randle or Collison is. And if you’re putting Rochestie on first team because you think he’d be a better shooting guard than Jerome Randle, well, then all I have to argue against that is all of the statistics for the whole year.

Randle had a better year in nearly every facet than Rochestie, save for game-winning shots, but I didn’t think they gave out all-conference for one game-winning shot at the end of the year.

mk92

JDub,

The reason the Pac-10 tourney is in LA is because that’s the only way UCLA would agree to the tourney being reinstated. Back in the day, it took 8 of the 10 schools to agree to reinstate the tourney. Arizona (under Lute) and Stanford (under Monty) were always steadfastly against it. So was UCLA. Finally, UCLA caved on the condition that the tourney always be in LA.

Even if you’re using the ‘functioning together’ argument, look at assists.
Look at points.

Look at alpha.

ur.dumb

You are very misinformed, freshman of the year isaiah in a landslide? Klay Thompson’s role on wazzu is more significant then thomas’s role on washingtons squad, the only distinguishing factor is the success of the huskies team.
-Thomas averages slightly more PPG, but at wazzu’s tempo klay’s PPG should be viewed as if they were in dog years…
-Thompson rewrote the record books at WSU in a variety of categeories.

I agree that thomas is freshman of the year 100%, however the statement that the race was a landslide is false.

Weston

In the games I watched, Thompson sat outside and shot 3s. Good shooter, but WSU did not win the games. Thomas on the other hand is a creator. Like a Jason Kidd, he made everyone around him better. Thomas was better than Dentmon, and I’m not slighting Dentmon.

Same as the comparison of Stanford’s Green and Cal’s Gutierrez. Green sat outside and made threes. Good shooting, but Stanford lost those games. Gutierrez helped with the Stanford, UW 3OT, and USC OT games. All crucial games that were keys to kal’s success.

Bay Area Dawg

Good point Weston. I didn’t get to see too much of Thompson this year, but as a Dawgs fan, I do know the impact that Thomas had. The ability to penetrate and break the zone was a huge part of our offensive success and allowed players like Dentmon to thrive. Watching Cal, I could really see the value of Gutierrez. His defensive tenacity and effect on the game was definitely noted in Cal’s season sweep over the Huskies.

And agreed, I would definitely put Randle over Rochestie. Rochestie was solid down the stretch the last couple weeks, but I knew of Randle’s effect all year. He was ridiculous in the blowout win at home against the Huskies and against Arizona last Thursday.

Rich

It would be easy to argue that the rest of the Pac 10 came back to Oregon State as much as OSU advanced due to Coach Robinson. The improvement is also an indictment of the job performance of his predecessor. Granted a very good job turning around the mindset of the players but an eighth place coach as COY?